The chip supports 5-mode LTE and the eight A53 cores are clocked at up to 1.5 GHz. The SoC supports 1080p displays, as well as high-def video encoding and decoding, while the improved image processor supports cameras between 13 and 16 megapixels.

Marvell claims that it has an enhanced security processor as well as advanced power management and audio codec. Marvell’s ARMADA Mobile PXA1936 supports both LP-DDR2 and DDR3, eMMC storage, WiFi, Bluetooth, FM, GPS, SOIO and the 5-mode 4G LTE.

The company also announced ARMADA Mobile PXA1908 quad-core, with A53 cores running at up to 1.2GHz. This is a cheaper 5-mode LTE chip. It also has 8 to 13 megapixel camera and 720p displays and it is meant to attack the Moto G market usually powered by Mediatek SoCs or Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 parts.

We don’t think that it will be the fastest solution around, but we hope to see this chip in some important designs. The company claims that we should see the ARMADA Mobile PXA1936 shipping in early 2015.

Manufactured on an advanced 28nm CMOS process, the new Marvell 88SS1074 SATA SSD controller brings support for the new 15nm TLC (3-bit per cell) NAND, in addition to support for MLC, SLC and 3D NAND. It also features low power support with integrated DEVSLP as well as Marvell's third generation NANDEdge advanced error correction and LDPC (low-density parity check) technology for higher NAND endurance and reliability without compromising performance.

According to Marvell, the new 88SS1074 SATA SSD controller is currently sampling to customers and will be showcased during Computex 2014 which kicks off next week in Taipei.

Marvell has announced its newest PCI-Express solid state drive controller which will have support for SATA Express. The new Marvell 88SS1083 PCIe SSD controller is a dual-lane PCIe SSD controller which should offer bidirectional transfer rates of up to 1GB/s.

The new Marvell Marvell 88SS1083 PCIe controller also supports Separate RefClock with Independent SSC (SRIS), a feature which eliminates the need for an expensive shielded cable and is also fully compatible with the new SATA Express standard. Designed with 28nm manufacturing process, the new controller also minimizes the power consumption, supports the DevSleep and L1.2 PCIe low power state and can scale to support 15nm NAND flash.

According to Marvell, the new 88SS1083 controller is currently sampling to key customers and scheduled to be in mass production in Q4, 2014. The same controller will be showcased in action during Computex 2014 which kicks off on June 3rd, so hopefully we will see more about it.

Marvell Technology will have to pay nearly $1.54 billion for infringing two hard disk drive patents held by Carnegie Mellon University. U.S. District Judge Nora Barry Fischer in Pittsburgh, where Carnegie Mellon is based, said "enhanced damages" were justified because the university presented enough credible evidence to establish that Marvell through "known willful infringement" deliberately copied its patents.

The amount of cash involved is staggering. In fact it is 1.23 times the sum of the original $1.17 billion jury verdict from December 2012, plus $79.6 million in damages for alleged infringements that the jury did not consider because it lacked recent financial information at the time.

Judge Fischer said Marvell knew of the patents for at least seven years prior to Carnegie Mellon's March 2009 lawsuit and this was designed to send a message to Marvell for its egregious behaviour and to deter future infringement activities.

Marvell said it was reviewing the decision and preparing a response. However it could have been a lot worse. The university wanted double or triple damages. However the Judge felt that would "severely prejudice" Marvell and perhaps threaten its survival.

The case concerned patents issued in 2001 and 2002, and related to how accurately hard disk drive circuits read data from high-speed magnetic disks. Carnegie Mellon claimed that at least nine Marvell circuit devices incorporated the patents, letting the company sell billions of chips without permission.

Marvell isn’t the first name that comes to mind when we think of SoCs, but this industry giant is still dabbling in the SoC market.

Its latest effort is a new Armada SoC, the PXA 1928 and it is targeted at low- to mid-range smartphones. It features a quad-core Cortex A53 processor backed by Vivante’s GC5000 GPU. In addition, it also brings 5-band LTE support.

The Avastar 88W8887 chip is also part of the platform and it features 802.11ac WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity. The platform even includes an FM radio, which is still a nice addition to any smartphone, especially a cheap smartphone with no unlimited data plan.

Although Marvell pretty much ceded the high-end market to Qualcomm, the new part is interesting. So far we’ve seen several 64-bit SoCs destined for cheap devices and the focus of MWC appears to be shifting from high-end gear to mid- and low-end devices.

The market is maturing – not everyone needs a pricey superphone with more processing power than PCs of yesteryear. A quad A53 is good enough for many users, especially in emerging markets.

Chipmaker Marvell reported a more-than-expected 112 percent rise in profit, helped by strong demand from storage and networking companies, and said it expected its mobile business to pick up in the current quarter.

Marvell forecast first-quarter revenue between $870 and $910 million, which is above what the cocaine nose jobs of Wall Street predicted. Chief Executive Sehat Sutardja said that in his company’s first quarter, he was expecting some revenue and unit growth for our 4G LTE mobile platform from multiple customers. Marvell said results were not so hot in the mobile business in the fourth quarter as some customers delayed product launches.

The company, which also makes communications and processor products used in mobile phones, said net income doubled to $106.6 million, or 21 cents per share, in the quarter ended February 1 from $50.2 million, or 9 cents per share, a year earlier.Revenue rose to $931.7 million, beating analysts' estimate of $901.1 million.

Marvell's biggest customer is Western Digital which reported better-than-expected quarterly results in January, citing strength in its gaming and notebook business.

Chipmaker Marvell has said it is not in talks with KKR on a major transaction such as a buyout. KKR reported a 6.8 percent stake in the company two weeks ago making many think that it might be headed for a buyout.

The chipmaker made the disclosure in a filing with the U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh, where it is defending against a lawsuit by Carnegie Mellon University alleging patent infringement in connection with computer disk drives. The case had not been going well. US District Judge Nora Barry Fischer rejected Marvell's bid to cut $620 million from a $1.17 billion jury verdict against the company.

Carnegie Mellon claimed that the KKR investment might herald "extraordinary corporate transactions" that could threaten the university's ability to collect a final judgment. However the court was told that Marvell has no present plans for an extraordinary corporate transaction such as a buyout, merger, reorganisation or liquidation and has not been in negotiations with KKR concerning such a transaction.

Marvell claimed that KKR's recent vote of confidence, expressed by increasing its investment in Marvell, only provides further testament to Marvell's financial strength.

Private equity firm KKR has bought a 6.8 percent stake in chipmaker Marvell Technology which sadly has nothing to do with the comic outfit.

Marvell's shares rose about 5 percent on the news after rumours started that the outfit might try to merge or reorganise the business. Marvell flogs chips to flash drive and mobile and wireless device makers, in November forecast fourth-quarter revenue above analysts' estimates.

Nearly half Marvell's revenue last year came from storage customers such as Western Digital and Seagate, for whom it makes chips used for reading and writing data on hard-disk and flash drives.

MediaTek is on a roll. According to the latest tablet CPU share report from Strategy Analytics, MediaTek is now practically tied with Samsung as the second biggest supplier of tablet chipsets.

Apple still dominates the market with its A5 and A6X processors and it enjoyed a 34 percent revenue share in the second quarter. Samsung and MediaTek had about 10 percent each, although Samsung was in a slim lead. Marvell and Qualcomm also made some progress in Q2, while Intel and Nvidia are expected to gain share in the second half of the year.

"MediaTek, a late comer to the tablet applications processor market, made strong progress in a relatively short time and captured the number three revenue share spot in Q2 2013. MediaTek scored significant design-wins with Acer, Asus and Lenovo,” said senior analyst Sravan Kundojjala.

Strategy Analytics notes that MediaTek's tactics of releasing stand-alone applications processors for the tablet market coupled with its reference design know-how have propelled its share to double-digits in the tablet applications processor market.

On the whole, the tablet SoC market saw 46 percent of year-on-year growth and Q2 revenue was $759 million.

Marvell introduced and announced its latest wireless area network system-on-chip solution, the Marvell Avastar 88W8864. The new chip is also the industry's first 802.11ac 4x4 solution that should improve the throughput of enterprise and retail access points.

Earlier this year, Marvell also introduced industry's first 802.11ac 2x2 combination radio chip, the Avastar 88W8897, which paired near field communications (NFC) and Bluetooth 4.0 with multiple input output (MIMO).

The new Marvell Avastar 88W8864 SoC significantly increases the bandwidth available over the Wi-Fi link as well as the network capacity for densely populated environments while extending wireless capabilities to a variety of new uses cases such as real-time video streaming and wireless back-up. By combining the advanced 4x4 MIMO solution with Marvell's beamforming technology and the new 802.11ac support that delivers up to 1.3Gbps of throughput, the new Marvell Avastar 88W8864 SoC will deliver high-quality, low latency, artifact-free video content across service provider gateways and set-top boxes, according to Marvell.

The new Marvell Avastar 88W8864 802.11ac 4x4 chip will be integrated into a broad range of Marvell's video and network platforms. [Damn, I thought it had something to do with locked diffs and winches. Ed]